


No plan, just a dream of home

by CatelynStark956



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:46:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26088904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatelynStark956/pseuds/CatelynStark956
Summary: Catelyn is in King’s Landing when they take Ned to the Sept of Baelor. She has no idea of what she’s doing, but she desperately tries to grab the pieces of her shattered family and bring them home.
Relationships: Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 10





	No plan, just a dream of home

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in show canon. It's also a bit illogical, but the idea just popped into my head and I had to write it. Hell, I hate Joffrey so much

“What’s happening?” she mumbled to herself. “Where are they going?”

Catelyn had been in King’s Landing for a week. And she had never seen all the inhabitants of the city really move to one place at the same time. They were always moving, sure, but never in the same direction. She just stood and watched it from her open window for a while, tried to figure out what was happening. She listened intensely to the people below her, but couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other. All the noice and the ringing from bells drowned out their words. All of it made her very uneasy. Something was about to happen, she didn’t know what, but she could feel that it was something bad. She could feel it in her bones. But of course that feeling had been constant since the news of Ned’s arrest had reached her. That was the reason to why she had returned to the capital. And she wouldn’t leave without Ned and the girls. She would take them home.

“My lady!”

Ser Rodrik came into her room. And the bad feeling in her grew worse when she saw his face. She had never seen the old knight with such a look of pure panic on his face.

“What is it? What is happening?” she asked him,

She heard the distress in her own voice. 

“They’re taking Lord Stark down to the Sept of Baelor” Ser Rodrik said.

For his execution. The Lannisters were going to execute him for treason. Outside the Sept of Baelor. That’s what everyone was so excited about. They flocked to watch Ned die. No, Catelyn couldn't let that happen. She had to save him. She wouldn’t just let him die when they had started a war to free him.

“Let’s go then” she said and tried to repress her fear.

She didn't have time to be afraid, she had to be brave. For Ned, and for their daughters. She could be afraid later. When they were all in safety.

“You cannot risk anything, my lady” Ser Rodrik said.

She almost got angry when he said that. Had he really expected her to just quietly stay in her room after he had informed her of that her husband would be executed? 

“I’m not going to wait here while they take his head. We have to do something. And in order to do something, we have to go there.”

She had no idea about what she was going to do, she just needed to do something. 

~*~

Chaos was the right word for it. They all screamed as Ned was brought out. Screamed that he was a traitor, that he deserved death. But Catelyn could barely hear it, all she could hear was the ringing in her ears. She tried to push herself through the crowd, but seemed to get nowhere. She was just pushed around. And she had lost Ser Rodrik somewhere, but that didn’t matter. The only important thing was to get to Ned.

“Watch yourself!” a big man said angrily when she tried to get past him. “We all want to see him die.”

He really thought that Ned was guilty of treason. They didn’t have a clue about that Cersei was lying to them.

“Sorry” she mumbled and continued to push herself forward.

They brought up Ned on the steps of the great sept. Where Cersei and that wretched boy of hers waited together with the members of the small council and Knights of the Kingsguard. And Ilyn Payne, Catelyn noticed and her heart sunk in her chest. The royal executioner. No no no no, she had to get forward faster. She had to push harder. What little hope Catelyn still had returned to her when she saw that Sansa stood there on the steps too, alive and well. She had not been thrown into a cell. But Arya was nowhere to be seen, where was Arya?

The crowd went quiet when they let go of Ned and he began to speak, and suddenly it was a little easier to get closer to the steps. She managed to pass the statue of Baelor the Blessed and was going to continue her desperate fight when someone grabbed her arm.

“Mother” a small voice said.

And that small voice belonged to a dirty and torn little girl with brown hair, a long face and Stark grey eyes.

“Arya” Catelyn gasped and pulled her into her arms.

Arya smelled of rotten fish and other could things, but Catelyn couldn’t have cared less. She held Arya’s little form close and kissed her hair. She had one of her girls, she had her youngest daughter. For months Catelyn had feared for Arya’s life, but she had her in her arms. She was alive and she wasn’t with the Lannisters.

“What are they going to do to Father?” Arya asked.

She looked up at Catelyn with tears in her eyes.

“Nothing, sweetling, I promise you. I won’t let them do anything to him” Catelyn said and looked up at Ned. 

He was still talking. No, not talking. Confessing. He was confessing to a crime he wasn't guilty of. Ned was loyal and honorable, he would never commit treason.

“But we don’t have much time. Wait here by the statue. Don’t go anywhere” Catelyn said quickly. “Promise me.”

“Okay, I promise” Arya said.

She sounded so afraid, the poor little thing. She sounded exactly like Catelyn felt. She wished that she could have stayed there and just held Arya forever, until all the worries in the world were gone. She just wanted to protect Arya from everything.

“Good.”

She turned away from Arya but had to turn back again. She took Arya’s hand and kissed it.

“I love you” she said.

“I love you too, Mother” Arya said. “Now go, get Father.”

And with one last look at her daughter, Catelyn turned her eyes towards Ned once more. The crowd screamed again and someone through a road at Ned, it hit him right in the head and he almost fell over. She had to bite her tongue in order to not shout. She had to get closer. And then came more silence as Ned continued with a bleeding wound on his forehead.

“Let the High Septon and Baelor the Blessed bear witness to what I say” Ned said with a shaky voice.

He was so far away from where he was supposed to be. He was a man of the north, he believed in the old gods. But he was in the south, he stood in front of a sept. The old gods could not hear him, could not help him. Catelyn would have to help him, save him.

“Joffrey Baratheon is the one true heir to the Iron Throne, by the grace of the gods, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the realm.”

He was afraid too, Catelyn realized. He was afraid for his life. Maybe they had promised they would spare him if he confessed. Maybe Catelyn could just. take him home. Grand Maester Pycelle said something about just and merciful gods, Catelyn couldn’t listen. She just had to reach them. She saw though, how Pycelle turned to Joffrey and asked him what would be done with the traitor. The crowd shouted about killing him, but the boy king silenced them

“My mother wishes me to let Lord Eddard join the Night’s Watch. Stripped of all titles and powers, he would serve the realm in permanent exile” Joffrey began. “And my Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father. But they have the soft hearts of women. So as long as I am you king, treason shall never go unpunished.”

He was not going to listen to them, he was going to kill Ned. She only had seconds. She had to get through. And with that Catelyn managed to push herself to the front and was almost impaled by a spear held by a goldcloak. They were holding the crowd back, stopping the people from coming up on the steps.

“Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!”

“No!” Catelyn shouted desperately before anyone else had time to react. “Wait!”

He couldn’t die. She didn’t know what she would do if he died. She couldn't do it without him.

“Catelyn!” Ned exclaimed as the same time as Sansa exclaimed “Mother!”

And everyone up there looked down at her at the same time. Joffrey even raised a hand to stop Ser Ilyn. With a relieved sigh Catelyn saw how Ser Ilyn put the sword back into it’s sheath.

“Look, it’s the traitor’s wife who has joined us” Joffrey said and his lips curled into a cruel smile. “Let Lady Stark through, it seems like she has something to say.”

The goldcloaks stepped aside to let her through. And Catelyn took a deep breath before starting to walk up the steps, she felt like her heart was about to explode in her chest. And the realization of that she had no real plan hit her in the face with full force. She had only thought of getting there, and not of how she was supposed to get away from there. She didn’t really know where to go, who to go to first. She knew where she wanted to go, she wanted to go to Ned and Sansa. She wanted to embrace them and take them back to Winterfell with her.

It was so quiet that she almost could have touched the silence.

“Are you here to bend the knee? Do like your husband and confess to treason?” Joffrey asked.

He sounded like he was having fun. He really was a little Lannister. A golden thing that had crawled up from the deepest of the seven hells. She didn’t bother with looking at him, she had decided to follow her heart. She walked straight up to Ned.

“Are you okay?” she said quietly and wiped away some of the blood on his face with her hand.

It was a foolish question, she knew that. She had never seen him in a worse state than the one he was in then. But she hadn’t known what else to say.

“What are you doing here?” was all he said. “They will take you too, why did you come here?”

“To get you and the girls back” she replied. “I wouldn’t stand back and let them kill you.”

“They will kill you too, Catelyn.”

He looked so tired and so broken. He was much thinner than when she had last seen them, his once muscled body was so thin that she felt even more scared. How close to starvation had he been when they brought him out from his cell? And he had new lines in his face that had nothing to do with laughter. His eyes seemed almost empty, as if he didn’t truly see her. But her Ned was there somewhere, she knew it.

“No, my love.”

She tiptoed and and kissed him lightly on the lips, not caring what anyone thought about it. Then she turned to Joffrey and looked him in the eye. He smiled back at her, a cruel smile.

“How sweet. Tell me, how does it feel to kiss a traitor?”

Ned was no traitor. Catelyn was no traitor’s wife. She didn’t know how it felt to kiss a traitor.

“I would no nothing of doing such a thing. My husband is no traitor.”

“There you are wrong. What are you doing here, Lady Stark?”

“I am here to tell you that if you behead Eddard Stark there will soon be an army of northmen at your gates, demanding your head. Let him go, together with Sansa and Arya, and we will pull back our armies. We will release all of our hostages, including Ser Jaime Lannister, and stop all the fighting.”

Joffrey only laughed.

“We outnumber you” he said. “You will all be gone before you have time to reach the gates of King’s Landing.”

Catelyn’s heart beat fast and loud. She had to succeed.

“The northerners have already defeated you once. And if you kill their liege lord, they will continue to do so until all of you are dead. And I can promise you, they will send you Ser Jaime’s head in a box. So release Lord Stark and our daughters. For your own sake.”

Cersei laid a hand on Joffrey’s arm and whispered something to him. And while that happened Catelyn looked at Sansa, and Sansa looked back at her with terrified eyes. Catelyn started to raise a hand, but stopped herself. Sansa couldn’t come to her until the Lannisters gave her permission to. She was afraid of them. What had they done to Catelyn’s sweet daughter? It felt like Catelyn had been stabbed in the heart. She wanted nothing more than to take Sansa in one hand and Ned in the other, walk down the steps, find Arya and go home.

Then Joffrey waved away his mother. And Catelyn looked back at him. She saw nothing forgiving in his eyes, saw nothing good. He just looked cruel. How had she not seen that when they visited Winterfell? Why had she not stopped Ned from going south?

“I want you to seize Lady Stark” Joffrey said loudly. “And I suppose I’ll have to say it again, since we were interrupted. Ser Ilyn, bring me Lord Eddard’s head. Treason shall never go unpunished.”

No. Two armored men grabbed her arms before she had time to take it all in. They held her hard, and it hurt when she tried to pull herself free. She kicked and pulled and fought to the best of her ability, but it was meaningless. She had no chance against two large men in armor, she only hurt herself. They dragged her aside and once more she could hear the ringing in her ears. She didn’t know what was happening. All she knew was the fear that burned through her body like fire. And a few seconds later she also knew the tears that rolled down her face. She could taste the salt on her lips when they forced Ned down on his knees and the sound of Ser Ilyn unsheathing his sword rang through the air. It was Ice. The Valyrian steel greatsword that had belonged to the Starks for hundreds of years. They were going to take his life with his own sword. She tried harder to pull herself free, tried to get to her husband. He couldn’t die, he couldn’t leave her there. She loved him, he couldn’t die.

“NED!” she screamed. “NO! PLEASE!”

But no one listened to her, no one heard her. The crowd beneath was screaming too, and Sansa was screaming. They were all screaming, but for different reasons. They all screamed as they watched Ilyn Payne raise Ice, they all screamed as he let the blade fall. But Catelyn screamed most of them all when she saw her husband’s head fall. The pain in her heart felt so real that she thought it would kill her. She had failed. She had failed and they had killed her Ned. She almost wanted the pain to kill her.

“I want the traitor’s wife’s head too” Joffrey demanded. “She’s as much of traitor as her husband was.”

It seemed she would meet the same fate. They kicked Ned’s body aside, like a toy that they had finished playing with. But that was Ned. That was Catelyn’s love, not just some toy. She watched it through her tears, thought of how it wasn’t really Ned anymore. Just a body. They had taken his life, he was no more.

“Do not touch Sansa and Arya!” Catelyn begged ad they dragged her out to where Ned had stood. “They have done nothing wrong, don’t punish them!”

She glanced at Sansa, she had fainted. And Catelyn was glad for it. Sansa wouldn’t have to watch as the only parent she had left was beheaded too. She wouldn’t have to see it.

“I’ll do whatever I like with them” Joffrey told her.

“They shouldn’t be blamed for our actions, they’re just girls, just children. Please have mercy with them!”

He had no mercy in him, Catelyn knew that. But she also couldn’t leave the world knowing that her daughter wouldn’t be safe. She looked up and out over the crowd that was screaming at her. She watched the statue, tried to see Arya. What would happen to her? Where would she go? Why hadn’t Catelyn told her to find Ser Rodrik? He could have taken Arya to safety. Catelyn could only hope for that she would find the knight on her own.

“I’ll hear no more from you. Give me her head!”

She couldn’t control her body at all, she just felt numb. Like she had no contact with her arms and legs. She could just watch as they prepared her for execution. They forced her down on her knees in the puddle of Ned’s blood. The blood was still warm, it went straight through her dress and to her skin. She got to feel Ned’s warmth one last time when she kneeled in his blood. And when Ilyn Payne raised Ice once more she could feel more of Ned’s blood drip down on her neck. Ned would meet her wherever they went, he would be there. It would be okay. It would be peaceful.

There, on the steps to the Sept of Baelor, Catelyn Stark met her end.


End file.
